It has taken a long time (as website projects always seem to do), but we're proud to unveil our (permanent-) beta version of the new website. We've had a redesign deployed since late June, but now the final back-end features have come online. In the coming days and weeks the scaffolding will take on more and more decoration in the form of content, especially as we backfill the site with months and even years of legacy material from both the former website and our brimming archives.

Aside from the blog, we're most jazzed about the new possibilities for video. It's mashed up with our YouTube channel, and the photo archive is mashed up with our Flickr account. So we're looking forward to having a flexible, nimble way to showcase the people and ideas of the school. In our Absolut world, watching a video can lead you to a person, which leads you to an event, which leads you to a blog post, which leads you to a piece of wisdom, and so on. We hope you'll immerse yourself in the great people, ideas and activities associated with the school.

We once had a blog on our old website, but it died on the vine before I arrived on the team. I never really understood why, and it's been one of my main goals to kiss the blog back to life and make it a key piece of our existence. We have an amazing community of thinkers and creative people associated with the school, and my goal is that we can reflect the passion and impact that this young organization is generating.

Thanks to our design firm, Novamondo, for a clean, elegant and functional design plus a tireless eye for details in the execution. Thanks to our programming and application partners at TD Solutions for delivering (after some bumps in the road that we made it through together) a remarkably versatile and workable back-end. Thanks to one member of the TDS team in particular; David, from now we have dubbed you Sir David. And thanks to the Berlin School team, especially Will Taylar, who has shown resourcefulness, patience and good cheer throughout this open heart surgery.

If you notice bugs or problems, spartan text passages, anything labelled "test" or "text", or other head-scratchers, especially in these first days, please bear with us. We are learning to taxi this complex Airbus before we can fly it, but we're glad you're on board in any case.